Nationwide, we mourn the victims of the Lafayette Theater shooting. It is a particularly sad time for people in West Georgia and East Alabama who knew the shooter, and have to come to grips with someone they know perpetrating such a deed. Yet some want to keep the hate that helped fuel Rusty Houser going.

I agonized over writing a column about Donald Trump and his appearance in Phoenix for two reasons: I thought much of what needed to be said was already written; and as an Arizonan, I went to the event with a pre-conceived bias. But then I realized, I had not been let down in my projected read of the rally.

There will be some who cannot or will not allow themselves to move beyond demeaning labels or acts of hate. You can only be responsible for yourself and your willingness to step above and beyond a diminished way of living. You can be part of re-framing how we think, talk and act as members of a shared country and a common humanity.

I refuse to accept the notion that being gay is not an important aspect that defines you. It touches everything that defines you. You could lose your job, wealth, reputation, status and family but being gay remains with you until you die.

In August 2014, Professor Steven Salaita lost a tenured position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign because his tweets criticizing the ongoing Israeli assault on the Palestinian population of Gaza were deemed uncivil.

Instead of being a lovefest or a cyber tea party, #AskELJames turned into a free-for-all where critics of all kinds told James what they thought of her books and her writing. The responses prompted this furious denunciation from Rice, an author I admire.

BC fired Donald Trump today. Last week Trump's Miss Universe pageant was dropped by Univision. Both networks are reacting to racist remarks by the Republican Primary contender, who is currently running second in the New Hampshire polls, ahead of Marco Rubio and only slightly trailing "Jeb!" Bush.

A disturbing trend is sweeping across American colleges and universities under the guise of protecting students from allegedly offensive speech -- defined differently by different interest groups -- with demands for everything from "trigger warnings" to banning speakers from campus.

Hate crimes, discrimination and microaggressions are issues currently facing all American institutions of higher education -- public and private, secular and religiously affiliated, progressive and conservative.

My trip up my family tree taught me that none of us is separate from one another - neither as individuals nor as groups. As such, hate that is rooted in the illusion of that non-existent separation is nothing if not absurd.

If you've spent any time online you've seen them. They barge into every discussion about racial issues like belligerent drunks in a bar, arrogance emanating from them like a stench, armed with statistics "proving" that Blacks are the most violent ethnic group on earth.